In many modern construction jobs, speed is of the essence. Many construction firms are offered hefty bonuses for finishing a construction job either ahead of schedule, on time, or under budget. Accordingly, many construction firms and employees thereof are under constant pressure to increase their performance speed.
Some of these pressures spurred the creation of power tools or elements thereof for inserting fasteners into a workpiece. For instance, many modern dwelling and business office building structures employ a plurality of panels of gypsum board, commonly referred to as drywall, in forming walls and ceilings instead for using plaster. Specifically, a skeletal framework is erected and is comprised of a plurality of vertically extending studs, which may be formed of metal. The studs are located so as to provide support for the drywall panels. In order to the construction, the drywall panels are fixedly attached to the studs by means of a plurality of threaded fasteners. Although nails, or similar fasteners, can be used, the use of threaded fasteners produces walls and ceilings having greater aesthetic appeal and greater structural integrity.
However, drilling a pilot hole for each individual threaded fastener, and then threadibly inserting the fastener therein can be quite time consuming and labor intensive, which therefore of course adds to the cost of the job. In order to save time and effort, power tools and attachments therefor have been constructed having an axial recess for accepting the head of a fastener. The power tool is then energized, applying torque to the fastener, and drilling it through the drywall and into the metal studs, thereby joining the drywall panels to the studs.
However, use of these power tools and attachments has certain disadvantages. Specifically, the tools may not fully seat the threaded fasteners within the studs. If this occurs, then a workman must go back and fully seat each fastener separately. This is inefficient, and can lead to increased costs. Additionally, if a workman tries to fully seat the fastener initially, he may mar or deform the surface of the drywall, possibly mandating its replacement or repair, adding further costs to the particular construction job.
Furthermore, it is possible that the threaded fastener can be overtorqued upon its insertion. Specifically, an excessive amount of torque can be applied to the fastener after it has been fully seated. This can result in the stripping of the fastener's threads, or the threads of the complementary hole defined within the stud. In this case, the fastener must be replaced. This too can add to the costs of the construction job. The present invention is intended to assist in solving these, among other, drawbacks of inserting threaded studs into a workpiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,510 shows a fastener-driving structure in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10 which, while designed to drive fasteners to the optimum setting, can sometimes disengage from the driving relationship with the fastener before the fastener is fully driven into the workpiece.